Method of treating thread



Sept. 26, 1939.

cAMP Er AL '2,173,998

METHOD OF TREATING THREAD Filed Oct. 18. 1958 AINVENTO s M 'ATTORNEYSCII Patented Sept. 26, 1939 UNITED STATES METHOD F TREATING THREAD.'`

William M. Camp, East Orange, and

Glen Ridge, vAlfred Burgeni, Frederick W. Thomas, Englewood, N. J.,assignors to The Clark Thread Company, Newark, N. J., a corporation ofNew Jersey Application October 18, 1938, Serial No. 235,586

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a novel and improved method of treatingthread. The novel features will be best understood from the followingdescription and the annexed drawing, in which we have shown selected bywhich the method drawings:

Fig. 1 is a vertical view ratus which may be used;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic vertical view of -another piece of 'apparatuswhich may be used.

The invention may be practiced in connection with the treatment ofthread or yarn of various kinds, but it has been found to beparticularly useful in the treatment of sewing thread made of staplefibers, either natural or artificial. Again, the method has been foundto be particularly valuable in the treatment of sewing thread made ofcotton bers.

In Figs. 1 and 2 we have shown a creel I having a multiplicity of spoolsor packages 2 mountembodiments of apparatus may be practiced. In thoseof one piece of appaed thereon. Creels of the type illustrated are wellknown in the art and need no further description. The thread or yarnwound on any one spool or package is termed an "end and that expressionwill be used sometimes herein, the word thread being used in a generalsense to dene the material of which the ends are formed. The number ofends may vary and'no attempt has been made in Figs. 1 and 2 to show anyexact number of ends, since to do so would tend to confusion of thedrawing. However, the number of ends is large and will be referred toherein as a multiplicity of ends.

The ends 3 from the creel are shown as being led through a plurality oftreatment baths in tanks 4, 5, and 6 and ultimately as being wound upona beam I. At various points the ends pass over or between rollers, asindicated, and some or all of these rollers may conveniently be drivenfrom a motor 8 through a line shaft 9 connected by suitable gearing tothe rollers and also to the beam.

In Fig. 3 we have shown a single bath in a tank I0 through which theends may pass and then they are shown as passing over drying drums II tothe beam 'I.

In either one of the above arrangements, it will be seen ,that the endsare assembled from a multiplicity of packages or spools in the creel onto a single beam where they will be wound in substantially parallelrelation to each other. While being wound on the beam, the ends mayconveniently be treatedkas desired. During the treatment, suitabledevicesknown in the art may be used to keep the ends separated from eachother, such devices being indicated, for example, at I2 in Fig. 3.

The tank 4 may and preferably does contain a bath consisting of analkaline solution of a cellulose-ether or one or more derivativesthereof. The materials preferably used in this bath aremethyl-cellulose, ethyl-cellulose or glycol-cellulose, or a. combinationof two or more thereof. It is important that the cellulose derivative orderivatives selected for this bath should be insoluble in water; and,for purpose of denition in the claims, I shall refer to these materialsas water-insoluble cellulose derivatives. For example, the material usedmay be of the kind disclosed in U. S. Letters Patent 1,722,927, grantedJuly 30, 1929.

'Ihe thread is preferably run through this bath, being immersed thereinfor a long enough time to be thoroughly soaked inthe solution, afterwhich the thread is then passed through the tank E which preferablyAcontains a suitable acid solution` which will coagulate the alkalinesolution. Then the thread may be passed through the tank 6 whichcontains a washing material to neutralize the treated thread.

After leaving the tank 6, the thread is preferably stretched, which maybe done by apparatus comprising two sets oi rollers I3 and I4. Therollers I4 are preferably driven at a slightly greater speed than therollers I3 so as to stretch the thread therebetween at I5. For thispurpose one of the rollers I3 may be driven from the line shaft 9 bybevel gearingindicated at I6, Whereas one of the rollers II may bedriven from the line shaft through intermediate gearing which maycomprise a gear II mounted on a shaft whichis driven from the line shaftby bevel gearing I8. The gear I'I meshes with a pinion I9 which in turnmeshes with a gear 29 on the shaft of one of the rollers I4. This shaftmay in turn drive the shaft of the beam I through the shaft 2| by somesuch gearing arrangement as indicated.

After the thread leaves the stretching rollers, it will be understoodthat the stretching tension is released, although the thread of courseis under the usual windin-g tension as it is wound on the beam I. Thethread may then be dried or subjected to other treatment, as more fullydescribed and claimed in the copending application of Alfred Burgeni,Ser. No. 257,566, led February 2l, 1939. In that application there isdescribed and claimed a method of wet stretching a thread and the threadresulting therefrom and we have found that by wetting the thread withthe material described and claimed herein, the resulting thread isgreatly improved, particularly for sewing purposes. It has an increasedtensile strength and improved smoothness, slipperiness andcompactness,as well as freedom from kinkiness, all of which qualitiesare valuable, particularly in sewing thread.

For the sake of convenience, it will be assumed that the ends in thecreel are in what are technically known as packages, that expressionbeing used in the claims for convenience only and not in a limitingsense. For'example, it may be assumed that the ends are in what areusually known as Franklin packages. The ends are preferably bleached ordyed before the described treatment is given.

By leading the ends from the multiplicity of packages through thevarious treatment steps and then winding the ends together upon a beam,a substantial saving is achieved, in that the beam takes much less spacethan would be required for any other take-off arrangement, for exampleone wherein each end was led to a separate winding mechanism. Moreover,by the arrangement illustrated, it is possible to subject the thread tosubsequent treatment of any desired kind, for example the kind describedand claimed in said copending application of Alfred Burgeni, Ser. No.257,566, before the ends are again wound in separate packages.Furthermore, the treatment described above usually is considerablyslower than a winding-oil operation and therefore by the use of the beamto Wind the ends it is possible to run several pieces of treatmentapparatus of the kind illustrated, while Vone winding-oil apparatus canbe used to take care of the beams wound by all such pieces of treatmentapparatus. A suitable apparatus for winding-off from a beam is disclosedand claimed in the copending application of Frederick W. Thomas, Ser.No. 233,588, filed October 6, 1938.

We claim:

l. The method of treating sewing thread of cotton fibers which comprisesthoroughly wetting the thread with an alkaline solution of one or morewater-insoluble cellulose derivatives without substantially changing thechemical composition of the bers, and then stretching the wet threadbeyond its elastic limit and short of its breaking point, and releasingthc tension on the thread.

2. A sewing thread containing cotton bers and made in accordance withthe method of claim 1.

WILLIAM M. CAIWP. ALFRED BURGENI. FREDERICK W. THOMAS.

